Sophomore Siena Amodeo Earns Spot In Fulbright Summer Institute

PUBLISHED ON May 24 2016

International Business and Marketing major Siena Amodeo hopes one day to participate on the global stage, perhaps as a high-level employee of Google or Disney. She’s working toward that goal this summer as a participant in the prestigious and selective Fulbright Summer Institute.

From July 4-22, Amodeo will study at the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London, which specializes in the study of non-western civilizations.

Amodeo will take a course called Feminist Economics and Development, where she hopes to learn about the different economic policies in developing countries and how they affect men and women differently.

“It will be a very different experience than what I have in the United States,” the rising sophomore said. “Usually, we look at how the United States is related to other countries. In this program, I will be focusing on how non-western nations view the world.”

In addition, Amodeo and the other participants will get to see London, as well as take daytrips to Bath, Stonehenge, and Oxford.

Amodeo was chosen for the program by the US-UK Fulbright Commission. The commission selects participants through a rigorous application and interview process that looks for academic excellence, a focused application, a range of extracurricular and community activities, demonstrated ambassadorial skills, a desire to further the Fulbright Program, and a plan to give back to the recipient’s home country upon returning.

The commission is part of the Fulbright program conceived by U.S. Sen. J. William Fulbright in the aftermath of World War II to promote leadership, learning, and empathy between nations through educational exchange.

Amodeo, who is from suburban Columbus, Ohio, said she’s excited to learn about and see more of the world.

“I’m an international business and marketing major, and this is not something a lot of business majors get to do,” she said. “A lot of the students participating in this are not business majors, so I think I’ll bring a unique perspective to the classroom, and I hope to be influenced by the students who are with me as well.”

Media contact:
Marc Allanmallan@butler.edu
317-940-9822

Sophomore Siena Amodeo Earns Spot In Fulbright Summer Institute

International Business and Marketing major Siena Amodeo hopes one day to participate on the global stage, perhaps as a high-level employee of Google or Disney.

Business Students Show Their Abilities As Financial Analysts

BY Hayley Ross '17

PUBLISHED ON Apr 24 2017

After months of research, planning, and preparation John Boudreau, Spencer Wenzloff, and Ryan Reid made their way to Louisville to compete in the local round of the CFA Institute Research Challenge in early March. The way they decided to announce their victory? Just a short, simple email with their winning trophy picture.

“Brought some hardware home”

The CFA (Chartered Financial Analyst) Institute Research Challenge is an annual competition that gives students hands-on, rigorous training in financial analysis. University students work in teams and are given a company to research and analyze.

“Essentially if you were an investor, anything you would need and want to know we should be able to tell you,” Reid said.

They found out about the competition in November, when their professor, Dr. Steven Dolvin, CFA, emailed his class about interest. Right away they knew who in the class would want to do the competition. Once they sat down together, the three decided to become a team and start research right away.

“As we got closer, we looked at what needed to be worked on, and did a lot of problem solving,” Boudreau said.

Work was divided up evenly, where they each focused on specific areas. Yet, Reid said, that didn’t stop them from being especially prepared.

“Even though we each specialized in certain areas, because our team is small we needed to know absolutely everything,” he said. “We wanted to be ready so we could answer everything intelligently.”

There were two “divisions” in the local challenge, where schools were chosen at random to compete against each other. Before the competition beganeach team sent in a detailed report. One team in each division went straight to finals. Everyone else in each division competed for one other spot.

“We had a 10-minute presentation and a 10-minute Q&A session, and believe me they were incredibly strict with the cutoff,” Reid said.

The team said the time limit was the most difficult part.

“The most challenging parts of it is it is only 10 minutes,” Reid said. “Trying to consolidate hours and hours of research to what’s essential for users to understand is hard. You always feel like you need more time.”

They went in and did their presentation. Boudreau said they weren’t expecting what happened next. “I was really shocked when they announced we were advancing. We had the Kelley School of Business graduate team in our division. They are much older and have had so much more experience.”

Quickly they went over everything, and in two hours sharpened what they were going to say. Apparently, they had a secret weapon.

“Spencer and I thought we had a strong concept of the company, but if you asked me what the components were that made diesel engines, it was Ryan that knew that,” Boudreau said. “That boosted our credibility by a lot. The judges even gave him the nickname Diesel.”

The final decision was announced.

“They said it was a unanimous vote, and we just looked at each other and were like, ‘Oh, wow’ because there is no way it could be us.”

When asked why they thought they did so well, they cited their communication.

“We are friends and it is what makes us work,” Reid said.

They headed to Seattle on April 7 to compete in the next level, the Americas Regional, against 52 other teams from North and South America.

Although they did not advance in the competition, they were excited to participate.

Boudreau said this competition has changed his life. He said he already had a job after college where he completed brokerage training, but decided to resign. He said this competition has changed his life, and what he wants to do.

Butler Business Students Are Bullish on New York City

BY

PUBLISHED ON Nov 08 2016

Will Willoughby ’19 went to New York City in October with the Lacy School of Business, confident about pursuing a career in finance and banking. He came home convinced that he’s on the right career track.

“The trip had quite a significant impact on me,” the sophomore from Kalamazoo, Michigan, said. “After seeing all of the different financial positions, and their significance to every company we went to, I knew when I left New York that finance and banking was what I wanted to do.”

And then there’s Marissa Terando ’18, an accounting and finance double-major. She “learned so much at JPMorgan Chase about the investment banking industry and all the different sectors that make up the company” that she came away interested in working on the Foreign Exchange and Commodities desk. “Something I had never even heard of before this trip,” the junior from Carmel, Indiana, said.

Willoughby and Terando were among eight students who took the Wall Street Trek trip to get a good look at Wall Street—JPMorgan Chase, the Stock Exchange, Blue Mountain Capital—and Johnson & Johnson headquarters in New Brunswick, New Jersey.

The idea of the Wall Street Trek, said Kim Goad, Director of Career Development in Butler’s Lacy School of Business, is to provide students with a deeper awareness of different roles in finance and a bit of a taste of what it might be like to work in New York City.

“This is one of the best parts of my job—to be able to match students up and show them what a day in the life really looks like and to expose them to different opportunities,” said Goad, who chaperoned the trip along with Assistant Professor of Finance Bryan Foltice.

Goad said the students chosen to participate in the two-day trip were required to submit a resume and cover letter. They had to have attained a certain grade-point average and make a compelling argument why this trip aligned with their career goals.

Lacy School of Business donors have now paid for the trip for two consecutive years and have committed to continue funding an experiential fund. Goad said the Butler students made their benefactors proud.

“A comment I often get about Butler students is that they are very polished but not robotic,” Goad said. “They kept the conversation alive in every meeting that we had, yet they were still students and fun and relatable.”

And in January, the Lacy School of Business will be going back to New York—this time with students interested in the retail world. From January 12-15, 10 students and two faculty members will attend Retail’s The Big Show, which features thousands of retailers—big box stores, fashion, technology, online, and others. They’ll have an opportunity to network with people, to have their resumes reviewed, and hear some great keynote speakers.

Will Willoughby ’19 went to New York City in October with the Lacy School of Business, confident about pursuing a career in finance and banking. He came home convinced that he’s on the right career track.

Will Willoughby ’19 went to New York City in October with the Lacy School of Business, confident about pursuing a career in finance and banking. He came home convinced that he’s on the right career track.

Butler Team Wins Library Research Competition

BY

PUBLISHED ON Nov 07 2016

A team of five Butler University students won the Purdue University Parrish Library Case Competition held on Saturday, November 5, an annual contest that challenges students to use their business research skills to solve a problem for a company.

Sammie Chalmers, Taylor Gillenwater, Nicole Henrich, Karly Krebs, and Allison Wolff beat more than 20 teams from Indiana University and Purdue University in a competition that took place at the Burton Morgan Center for Entrepreneurship on the main campus of Purdue University in West Lafayette.

Business Librarian Teresa Williams organized Butler's entry into the competition. Williams and Library Associate Andrew Welp, who also is an adjunct librarian supporting Butler’s Lacy School of Business, helped the team to prepare.

As Information Commons students—student employees of the Information Commons, a collaborative program of the Butler Libraries and Center for Academic Technology—the Butler team members receive training in how to find, evaluate, use, and present information. Information Commons and eLearning Librarian Amanda Starkel and Academic Technology Specialist Megan Grady-Rutledge co-manage the Information Commons program and have developed a training program that provides a foundation for 21st century research skills.

Participants in this year’s competition were asked to focus on a real startup, Alexandria Brewing Company of Alexandria, Kentucky. The students were asked to conduct research and provide a market analysis for the company. They were assigned to analyze the craft beer market nationally as well as locally in Ohio/Kentucky/Indiana to provide insights on the target customers, trend analysis, and action plan.

The teams put together PowerPoint presentations and executive summaries. The judges complimented the Butler team for its information and presentation of data, its implementation plan and the way it connected its research to the company’s backstory.

“We are proud of the students and how they applied their Information Commons training and business information literacy skills to succeed in the competition,” Williams said. “When considering the multitude of research resources that are available to IU and Purdue business students, this was a significant achievement, especially given it was Butler’s first year in the competition.”